Thank you for keeping me alive
by Rain Day
Summary: Hotsuma fighting a giant spider... sort of.


"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Hotsuma hit the space bar frantically, while with his other hand hacking at arrow keys and ENTER.

"Shit! Don't! No! NO! Bastard! You...TAKE THAT! No! Wait, wait! Damn...shit, shit, shit!"

His eyes darted back and forth between the rapidly shrinking green bar that symbolized the life-force of his scarcely clad Seraphim Fighter and the fighter itself, getting hacked to pieces by a fucking giant spider with glowing, neon-green razor claws before he could even start a combo strong enough to at least so much as scratch it.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Hotsuma hit the space bar hard enough to break it.

He had to wait until his life-force was just one hit short of being empty before refilling it. With such a formidable enemy he could not afford wasting elixirs.

"No..." He whispered. And then screamed: "No! You'll not win! This is MY game!"

The spider was too fast, too strong. His hands trembled, his eyes burned, his heart beat, his breath came in short gasps, his mind reeled.

"Hit!"

The spider glowed red and shuddered, its life-force at least – at least!—affected by one of his Seraphim Fighter's direct hits. But that only made it angrier.

"Damn! No! Shit! Sh—"

Hotsuma pressed the space bar just in time, almost too late. Almost too late!

He didn't even hear the fearful whimper he emitted, nor the rustle and the silent footsteps behind him. The spider demanded all of his attention. All of it. It had grown faster now, even faster! How was that possible?! How was that even possible?!

"No, no, no! You cannot! No!"

Having had to pay attention to his life-force he missed the perfect chance for another hit.

"Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!"

The spider attacked again and he couldn't block its first hit, tried to outrun it, attacked it from behind. But the spider whirled around and his only chance was-  
_  
Risk it!_

Hotsuma attacked the spider, instead of trying to block any of its hits. His life-force glowed bright red, blinking. If the spider hit him one more time... if he hit the spider one more time...He had to! He had to! He had to... just one more hit and-

His life-force stopped blinking, the spider went down in a heap of shuddering pixels.

Hotsuma grinned, taking a deep breath and leaning back in his chair more than satisfied. Slowly his tense muscles started to relax and adrenalin gave way to sweet, sweet happiness.

Turning his head he knew that Shusei, now standing next to him, inspecting the spider's corpse with a frown, didn't share his extreme excitement over a computer game—like he didn't share much of what he did, either. Yet he smiled gently at Hotsuma, his finger still on the space bar he had pressed just in time a minute ago.

Neither of them said anything.

Shusei straightened himself up and returned to his comfortable spot near the window where he had been sitting and reading all the while.

Hotsuma briefly wondered how his partner could concentrate on anything with him screaming and the computer blaring right next to him. But then, probably it was just a question of the right training. He had been doing this ever since, after all.

In fact, so advanced had Shusei's talent of blocking out Hotsuma's noise become that he didn't even so much as stir when Hotsuma got up a few hours later and almost stumbled over his own shoes and jacket and schoolbag discarded on the floor.

Well, he had had to hurry to get back to his game after school, hadn't he? Who could spare any time to clean up before taking on a giant spider?

When Hotsuma returned half an hour later and sat down next to Shusei his partner finally lifted his gaze off his book.

Hotsuma waited until Shusei had removed his book to a safe place until he handed the steaming bowl of freshly cooked food over to his partner.

"I would have preferred a burger." Hotsuma said. The stains on his rumpled shirt, his ruffled hair and the flour on his cheek were more than enough proof of that. "But I can't let the girls see me like that, can I?" He added.

Shusei punched him playfully and smiled.

"Thank you for keeping me alive." He said.


End file.
